Science Leadership Academy @ Center City

Advanced Art Quarter 2

Posted by Tamatha Lancaster in Advanced Art - Hull on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 9:33 pm

Take 200 Pics/Edit 200 pics

When I found out that we had to take 200 hundred pictures, I was shocked because I didn't know how I was going to take 200 pictures in a week. But when you actually do it, it's not that hard and it goes quick because you're having fun taking pictures. After taking 200 pictures we had to photoshop 5 of them. The reason for taking 200 pictures is because you would get a variety of different pictures, some will bad lighting and focus and some with good lighting and focus. When I found out that I had to photoshop some pictures, I was excited because I was learning something new. I didn't really know how to use photoshop and this was my chance to learn.

When I photoshopped my pictures, I chose five of my favorite pictures. And then I did different things to my pictures. For one, I took a picture of my hallway then photoshopped a creepy little girl in it, for another it was a picture of my aunt and I photoshopped my face into it and made her eyes red. For the next one it was a picture of me and my two friends and I photoshopped us into a concert. I took a picture of me and then put bubbles in it. And the last one I took a picture of me and my friend and then put leaves in it.

The hardest part of this assignment was taking one pictures and photoshopping it in another because when I tried to crop it out, parts of the picture was getting cut out because my hand wasn't that steady. Also I had to get the right background or picture because sometimes it would be too big or small. Another thing that was difficult was making my aunt eyes read because the red was going on her skin and it wasn't even.

Internet Sculpture

I didn't have a clue what to make when I found out that I had to make something off the internet. At first I was going to make a piece of clothing, then I was going to make a picture frame, and then I finally decided that I was going to make a phone booth. The reason I was going to make a phone booth is because a phone is something I can't live without. Also because a phone booth is something no one would think to make.

The whole process while making the phone booth was easy. First I got an old shoe box and then covered the outside of it with paper because the outside couldn't be painted without it. Next I took a mix of blue and black and painted the outside and inside of it. Then I took the bottom of the box and cut it down some so it can be the part with the numbers on. I cut pieces of paper out with the numbers, star, and pound sign on it and glued it to the box. I then glue the piece with the numbers on it to the bigger box and painted the whole thing. After that I took the base that my perfume was on because it looked liked a phone and painted it black. Then I put a string at the end of it and connected it to the bottom of the box.

Larger Clear Object

I wasn't shocked or hesitant of making a large clear object because we did it before. So it's not like I don't know what I'm doing. But making a larger clear object does make me more confident of making one. I was happy that we had to make a larger clear object because this one of my favorite assignments. And since I already made one before which was smaller, I wanted to make one with an object that I didn't use yet.

To make the larger clear object, first I decided which clear object I wanted to draw. Then I decided to do a object that looked like a measuring jar. Then I took a piece of charcoal and shaded the whole paper black. Next, I started to draw the object. I took an eraser and erased the parts that were clear and places where it was lit. Then I darken the places that were dark on the object and then made a shadow for the object. Lastly, I made a table like figure for it so it looks like it's not floating in mid air.

Copy A Master

I love to draw so copying a master piece is one of my favorite assignment. When I was looking for a picture to copy, I was searching for something that wasn't to hard or to easy. I finally found a picture that was called "Donkey and Cart". I decided to choose this picture because it was something that I've never done before so I was welling to try it.

I started with the end of the picture and when I was done with the end, I did the front then the middle; this part is just the donkey, cart, and the man. After doing that I did the rest of the pictures and then put the details in it.

JFK civil rights act

Posted by Nashrah Malik in American History - Herman on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 9:15 pm

http://nmaliksjfk.blogspot.com/2012/01/jfk.html

Quarter Review

Posted by Matthew Ferry in Advanced Art - Hull on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 5:34 pm

For this quarter I did three assignments and started on a fourth My first one was creating large clear objects, which was challenging for me. Drawing well shaped geometric shapes has never been a specialty of mine; while it was very difficult, I enjoyed being able to find weak spots in my abilities in my artist. The other technique I saw a weakness in mine was shading on large objects. I'm able to do shading easily on smaller objects, because I'm working with less space than I was on this piece. Getting proportional shading was a difficult. I enjoyed this assignment a lot, because it showed where I can improve.
After doing this assignment, I decided I’d do another charcoal piece. For this one, I did an alligator eye. Alligators are one of my favorite animals, and their eyes are pretty incredible looking. The primary color of the eye is a picture of gold, black and brown, giving it a foggy look. I especially enjoyed this project, because I was working with something I'm comfortable with.
My third project for this quarter was creating a piece of art out of recyclable items. For this, I decided I'd create a lamp shade out of book pages. My original idea of what would happen was a light would turn on, then the shade would illuminate many different letters throughout the room. I couldn’t get mine to do this, because I had to use another piece of paper as a foundation to hold the pages together. I also couldn’t shape this well, because the paste caused the pages to develop creases. I enjoyed doing this because I was using resources I’d otherwise not use to create pieces.
My fourth project for this quarter was designing shirts with spray paint. I’ve always enjoyed spray paint art since I saw Keith Haring’s mural down South Philly street. I decided I’d create an Olympic ring template for the Olympics this upcoming year. I used cardboard for my cutouts, which was the most resourceful, but very unaidful towards making my prints. The shape that the rings came out in weren’t circles, but distorted circles with edges. After I finished spray painting that, I decided I’d do something that had sharp edges. I decided to go with a triangle for this. The triangle came out much better than the Olympic rings did, due to the sharpness of its shape. The cardboard wasn’t able to retain its shape well after undergoing the spray paint though. If I were to redo this, I would use stencil paper, which is being used for my next art project. For this stencil project I'll be creating cut outs, then spray painting them. I have several ideas, one of which is a stencil of New Gingrich with the words "VOTE STRUDEL" under it.

Isabela Aznar- Quarter 2 art reflection.

Posted by Isabela Supovitz-Aznar in Advanced Art - Hull on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 1:56 pm

This quarter in art was a big growing experience for me. Olivia Smith and I joined together and decided to work as partners in creating our own curriculum of abstract art. Part of this curriculum was thinking of art projects that would challenge us, but that we would enjoy and grow from as well. We also were both very adaptive and decided that art is something that can grow and so it was ok for our projects to branch of from the original guidelines into a piece of art that really described us and our project as well.

Projects we did:

The first project that I did was a project that was suposed to be half of a picture of my face, and half of a cartoon version of my face together making a whole of my face to show contrast. This was drawn in charcoal and colored pencils. below is an image of the final piece and what half of my cartoon face would like in comparison to my actual face.

The second project Olivia and I did was a Tim Burton inspired animal of our choice, with any colorful art materials we wanted. I decided to paint a wolf and then go back and do parts of the background and face in pastels. I chose to do a wolf because they are my favorite animal. Below is the sketch and the final version.

Another project I did individually (started in class, finished at home) was a drawing of a girl smoking a cigarette with the words "society told me to" underneath. I did this because Philadelphia has the most underaged smokers in the United States and I feel as if the pressure to do so can really come from peers and society.

Overall, I think Olivia and I grew a lot together this quarter as artists and have really helped each other see art in a new perspective.

History Quater 2 Benchmark Reflection - Student Rights (See Sean Moss Page for Blog)

Posted by Jesse Weinberg in American Government - Laufenberg on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 12:01 pm

For my final benchmark in American Government I choose to do Freedom of Speech. Freedom of Speech is located in the first amendment. It is important to have freedom of speech because it allows the person how to express how they feel. This is a right that not should be taken away from any one. Going back and doing this process I feel that more time should have been put into the project and the communication should have been alot better, however it is not a person fault if they do not get internet half the time. Other then the technical problems I feel like my partner and I worked very well together and also I was keeping up with him to make sure the work was getting done in a timely matter. How this could have improved was that we should have added more people then what we had. We should have gone to other schools and asked more of outside people. If i was to do this project again i would not change the process. what I learned is that you shouldn't take away people's freedom of speech and that everyone has a right to this. What went well with this is that it was turned in on a timely matter. The most interesting fact was that was defended in alot of cases. What i liked about the project was that it was creative and made us use out people. what i didn't like was that there was alot of technical problems with uploading

Benchmark Reflection

Posted by Sade Skelton in American Government - Laufenberg on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:51 am

We choose this topic because this is something we believe in and it is a very controversial topic. I feel like a lot of teenagers really dont show their view about this topic (LGBT) and I personally have experience with seeing how people treat LGBT. I like this project because we could get creative with the video and we can also speaking about thing we never really pay attention to. The most interesting fact I found out was that same sex marriage was accepted in the state of California between the date of June 18th 2008 and November 5th 2008 then is was discontinued by the proposition 8. I think this project can be improved by broadening the topic and not having it relate to the constitution because you feel like you have to stay under this one umbrella and cant move out to talk about something else. It's like you wanna say more but what you want to say may not be related to the constitution. Finding out how our topic correlates with the constitution was a challenge. Finding out a way to explain what LGBT has to do with the constitution/ the 14th amendment and then making a video about it. Also staying on track. Working with the group I was in was a big pro in this project because we were on the same page with the video and how we were going to get our point across. I think I would change my process of this project and give myself enough time to figure what Im going to do, how I am going to do it and how can I make it better instead of waiting until the last minute and not turning in my best quality work because I was rushing. I learned that there was a Marriage Act that was passed in 1996 that give each a state permission to either accept or reject same sex marriage. Only 10 states (& Washington DC) accept same sex marriage

To See The Entire Benchmark Click This Link http://scienceleadership.org/blog/LBGT_Rights_by_J-Long-S-Skelton-B-Thompson

Reflection

Posted by Sekai Harris in American Government - Laufenberg on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:49 am

http://bit.ly/xtoQR5 (Link to video)

My partner and I chose this topic because it was something that caught both of our attention. We both love art and believe that censored art is something that has a deep meaning. I really liked that we could be creative with our projects. I felt as though we could go anywhere with it and expres ourselves. The one challenging thing was trying to tie it all in together. The most interesting thing that we investigated was "Piss Christ" because learning about it's background was very challenging because many people find it sacreligious. This project could have had more time put into it. The one place we ran into trouble was trying to upload it. On thing that went well with this project was gathering the information. If I had to do something over I would pick a different topic because it was hard to find things to speak about. I learned that many things in our world are looked down upon but have a deep meaning and people don't seem to be ready for it.

Q2 Benchmark Reflection

Posted by Tariq Smith in American Government - Laufenberg on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:46 am

Please refer to Jason Davis' blog for actual video

Enchanted Video

I chose the topic of freedom of speech through censorship of music because this is something that affects my life in an important manner. Music is part of my daily schedule and when it is censored from its original state in my opinion it makes the music unoriginal and taints the music.

What I liked about this project was the fact that I could take something that I am passionate about, and use creative means to educate others on my opinion all the while academically fulfilling ones needs on a specific amendment. The most challenging project in my opinion was how to incorporate music with history and vice versa.

The most interesting fact that I investigated was while watching the C-Span footage of Joe Biden making a speech and seeing how the first amendment actually related to music in my living conditions

This project could've been improved by making the information that was conveyed slightly more academic. Although there were no requirements for how academic it had to be for the competition, for class I felt I could've incorporated more than just Joe Biden.

I had much trouble when trying to come up with lyrics for the actual song we created because I wanted them to have controversy as well as be appropriate for a large competition like C-Span

What went well with the project was the fact that my group members and I all share an unusual type of creativity that when joining forces, it makes for a final product that others are often amazed by.

If I had to do it all over again, I would do a podcast with instead of an actual self-made music video.

I learned that everywhere throughout history and politics can relate to my everyday life in some way shape or form.

Quarter 2 Benchmark - Student Rights

Posted by Sean Moss in American Government - Laufenberg on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:43 am

By Sean Moss and Jesse Weinberg

Here is the Link to our Video Hosted on School Tube.

Citations

"C-SPAN StudentCam 2012 - Downloads." C-SPAN StudentCam 2012. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan. 2012. <http://www.studentcam.org/cspan_downloads.htm>. Remove-item-icon Edit-item-icon "Student Speech - Recent Court Cases, Issues and Articles | American Civil Liberties Union." American Civil Liberties Union. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan. 2012. <http://www.aclu.org/free-speech/student-speech>. Remove-item-icon Edit-item-icon Sutton, Marsha.

" Restricting students from freedom of speech - Del Mar Times | Del Mar Times ." Del Mar Times | The Latest News from the Community of Del Mar . N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan. 2012. <http://www.delmartimes.net/2011/01/20/restricting-students-from-freedom-of-speech/>.

Reflection:

We wanted to look into the subject of Freedom of Speech and one of the controversial issues standing is student rights. The actual rights are not written expressly for the youth under the age of 18. Given that they are minors and in a school system that has varying rules special to each school, we wanted to get the opinions of students on what they believe their rights are and how they'd feel if the freedom given was restricted more than it is now.

The most challenging part of this project was getting the interviews and getting questions that would pull out the most intriguing answers. The length of the video was a problem i ran into and he to pull some last minute stops to get it to be an appropriate time.

I wasn't actually aware that student's rights were not a part of the constitution nor an amendment. Even after the first case regarding the rights of a student, Tinker vs. Des Moines, the supreme court ruled in favor of the students however after that many cases have taken separate courses depending on the judge or subject regarding the issue. The first amendment states "

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Keyword being "the people", not age appropriate, or just 18 to 88. It says all persons. But since school's make regulations against certain articles of clothing and practices in their halls it is basically unconstitutional to tell a student he isn't allowed to do or say something but that still butts heads with the authority of the school system so there can't be a law undermining the regulations a school puts into place.

Adding to length and wider range of opinions and subject matters as well as narration from us the creators could make the video better all around.

Finding people who had something to say was relatively easy. Each person has an opinion of how the schools are run and each has a strong reaction to "how would you feel if you couldn't" questions.

Adding better materials. The editing wasn't hard but having something to edit was a problem that we ran into.

Ib.Rid's Reflection

Posted by Anonymous in American Government - Laufenberg on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:41 am

I picked this topic because I have frequently felt perturbed toward any censorship to the arts. I liked the freedom we had along with the amount of information we could use. However, finding any specific information is rather difficult on google about somethings. I found interesting the explanation for certain artist such as andre serrano who expresses his art not from the crude images of poses, but the liquids that he uses. We had a problem converting it and finding stuff. The fact we both found decent information about our topic means it wents well.

Benchmark Reflection

Posted by Lamaya Mapp in American Government - Laufenberg on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:39 am

Refer to Chelsea's blog post for the full project.

For the Student Cam benchmark, my group and I decided to focus on the First Amendment but really nail the thought of freedom of religion. In our group we realized that we all have completely different thoughts of religion. To some of us it was important and to the rest it wasn't so much. After having a discussion about religion, we then wondered how would we feel if someone told us we didn't have the right to believe in whatever we believe in. This is why we decided to make our project about freedom of religion.
The best part of this project was reflecting about how this Amendment effects society in a positive way and actually giving our own personal opinion about certain situations. In our case, we mainly focused on our religions and an debate about two completely different religions and their views about each other beliefs. The most challenging part was to say exactly how I feel and what I think without being offensive. I strongly dislike the thought of religion (but not the thought of Jesus and God or any higher power) so it was nearly impossible for me to explain how I felt and why.
What was interesting to me was the fact many people believe in things such as Agnostic theism and feel more how I feel about religion. During the early 1900s the people were more religious than people are today. I always thought that many people was always religious. I also thought that it was interesting that not many people.
This project could have been improved by allowing people to be very vocal about how they feel and not have any limitations. I think our video wasn't the best it could have been, with more work done to it, I believe that our video has the potential to be much better.
If I could redo this project, I wouldn't hesitate how I feel about religion, that's why I have this right. I wouldn't be blunt, and I won't down talk any religion but I thing raw feelings would have made this video better.

Q2 Benchmark Reflection

Posted by Jasmine Gladden in American Government - Laufenberg on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:34 am

Click here: Benchmark

Why did you choose this topic? We choose this topic because we felt as though many students in school don't feel as though their freedom of speech is granted to them.
What did you like about this project? What was most challenging? I like the most about this project was recording people and asking them how do they feel about freedom of speech in general. I like this part the most because you got to hear things from different perspectives and got to see how people can voice how their freedom is given to them. The most challenging part was getting the cspan video that was related to our project. This was hard because we had to make sure we could tie it back to our main point.
Describe the most interesting fact or event that you investigated. I think the most interesting event was when it came to interviewing Ms. Hull about freedom of speech. This was interesting because she took it over the top and opened up more doors for our topic and have us look at things a little differently.
How could this project be improved? I think the only thing that we could improve is the number of people we interview about freedom of speech. I think if we had more people it would've been better. So all and all I think we would have to improve on our timing.

Where did you run into trouble with the project? The only trouble we had was really converting the video we made to come up correctly of slate. Other than this we really didn't face any problems.
What went well with this project? I think the project went well over all because my partner and I work well together. We both put forth the effort in to the project.
If you had it to do over, what would you change about your decisions or your process?I think the timing process would be changed. If we timed it better we probably could've had more people lined up to be interviewed and it would've made it better.
What did you learn? I think that freedom of speech is important to teachers in school just as well as it is important to the students. If they don't voice their opinion then they can't be heard.

Right to Bear Arms

Posted by Robert Broadwater in American Government - Laufenberg on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:32 am

I chose this topic because it is a widely misunderstood provision of the constitution. What I liked about doing this project was the interview process. It was almost enlightening to hear the thoughts and opinions of other kids my age on the topic of gun laws. However the most interesting occurrence in the interview was people saying they feel safe knowing almost anyone could be carrying a gun at all times. I see this project growing. I feel like this is a topic worth investigating on my own personal time. In the future I plan to interview people well above the age of purchasing a firearm and maybe some owners of shops that sell guns and other weapons. The biggest problem in my plan was timing. I set aside too much time for planning and not enough time for shooting and editing. I was rather upset when I wasn't able to get one of the smaller cameras, which in tern slowed the process further in forcing me to take a few days to capture the interview footage to my computer. However on a relatively good note I was able to get amazing interviews that were very diverse in opinions and backgrounds alike.

Q2 English Ad BM: Make-A-Wish Foundation

Posted by Zayd Alsardary in Reading, Writing, and Rising Up - Rami on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:29 am

In my case, I wasn't really promoting a product, I was actually trying to promote a non-profit organization that is making a big difference in the world and trying to help those in need. The non-profit organization that I chose was the Make-A-Wish Foundation. I chose the Make-A-Wish Foundation because not only are they granting wishes for the sick, needy children who really need a wish to come true, but they put smiles on those kids faces especially with everything that is going on in their lives. Also, my brother was actually granted a wish from the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and it inspired me even more. My intended audience is adults, or people who want to make a difference in their communities. Aim at people with a lot of money who are willing to donate for a cause worth fighting for. I think this is an effective way to reach my audience because the Make-A-Wish Foundation actually doesn't really advertise much and looking at a picture using the many ways to catch a person's attention in an ad will be effective in maybe sparking something. Poster ads are pretty effective themselves. If I were to do this BM again, I would not procrastinate and use my time a bit more wisely. Also, I would add on an actual commercial, especially since I had a whole one in my mind that I just needed to put together. I found this BM really interesting and it taught me alot about ads, how to set up ads to be effective, theyre role in media, and what they are trying to sell to the consumer, etc. Hope you enjoy.

Benchmark reflection

Posted by Tyler Hankinson in American Government - Laufenberg on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:29 am

For a copy of this project refer to http://scienceleadership.org/blog/Q2_Benchmark_-_Freedom_of_Religion

What did you like about this project?I like that in this project every member of the grouped picked each others brains to find out their outtake on religion and everyone just listened to everyones outtake

What was most challenging? I think the most challenging was putting what we talked about onto the actual video because when the camera starts to roll things change
Describe the most interesting fact or event that you investigated.
I think the most interesting fact that I found out was peoples take on atheism
How could this project be improved?I think if we would have explored other videos of other religions it would have brought a different out take instead of the you believe or dont believe

Where did you run into trouble with the project? I think that the problem that the group ran into was how we would discuss our feelings into the camera
What went well with this project?The research
If you had it to do over, what would you change about your decisions or your process?
What did you learn?I wouldn't have waited so late to start recording

LBGT Rights by J.Long, S.Skelton & B.Thompson

Posted by Brooke Thompson in American Government - Laufenberg on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:26 am

To see our full project please refer back to Jareese's blog post

Reflection

When choosing a topic for our project we wanted to choose something that meant something to all of us. We felt as though it we were going to make a video about something why not make it about something that has an impact on us. So we collectively decided to make a video based around LBGT rights and the 14th amendment of the constitution because we each have friends that are either LBGT. And we see how there treated everyday because of their sexuality. When creating the project I liked the actual filming the most and coming up with the concept of the project. The most challenging part of the project by far was agreeing on ides with my group members because we had ideas that conflicted with each other. The most interesting fact I found when creating this project is that same sex marriage is only granted in 6 states across the US. I found this interesting because in the 14th amendment it states, "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States". But the states do just that. They take away the rights to marriage.
I feel as though we put together a quality project but I do think there is room for improvement. For starters I would only work with one person and I would or myself because I feel as though our ideas conflicted. We ran into trouble with the project when getting everything finished on time. After completing this project I learned that everyone isn’t granted the rights, as they should be.

"Maybe She's Born With It" Advertisement- Nia Berry

Posted by Nia Berry in Reading, Writing, and Rising Up - Rami on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:24 am

My product is a print ad directed to women in society who heavily use make up. The message I am trying to convey is that make up is advertised to the young for the wrong reasons. Such products as "Maybelline", with their slogan, "Maybe She's Born with It, Maybe it's Maybelline!", are suggesting that beauty is born with and if you do not feel beautiful, their products will fix that. This ad is an effective way to reach my audience because it takes the innocence of a little girl playing in make up to a level of enlightenment, showing the reason why the little girl feels the need to cake on make up to feel like a pretty model from the commercial. If I was to do this again, I would like to take my product more public and with greater design and narration to fully explain the concern of my advertisement.

Quarter 2: Emma Hohenstein

Posted by Emma Hohenstein in Art - Senior Art - Hull on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 9:23 am

Most often I find desire to create art when I am alone by myself. The situation I am relating upon is one late afternoon when I was alone in the art room at school and watching the reflection of a late autumn sunset on the buildings across the corner. The shapes of the orange and browns were beautiful. I took an old side panel from a restaurant that was sitting around the room and sketched out the shapes of the buildings. It was a strange three foot by five foot board but my comfort level is always much greater when the things I am working on are large. I never considered myself a painter and, to be fair, I still don't. But this was my first honest painting. It was a little uncomfortable and certainly more impressionist than realist. However, I'm proud that I was able to direct myself in such a big endeavor.

After completing my painting I felt a little blank because I had sort of exhausted my visual powers. As a simple project I took out linoleum blocks in order to abstractly replenish my ability to view things artistically. It was not something I expected to require quite as much work as it did. It was a long, methodical process and I have a scar or two left over from the harsh tools. I wasn't too satisfied with my final product, even after a few variations of it and that dissatisfaction was what lead me into my next project.

Previously I had worked on wood block cuts so I wandered around the engineering room looking for something large to cut onto. The closest I found to a block of wood was an old, particle board table with lots of left over holes from the legs. Excitedly, I carved a large figure in repose into the wood. I found out as I carved and accidentally perforated the board that the table was hollow and full of honeycomb cardboard. I punctured the back behind the figure so often that in the end I began to peel off the board completely. With this project I feel like it completely had a life of it's own and the more I worked on it the more it asked of me. But the more I did the more complete it also began to feel. I still don't think that it is as finished as it should be. I really appreciate the emotion that is so expressive in it, the way the color and the shapes work with the holes and carved areas. I would really like to attach small LEDs behind the body and have light that comes through the holes and around the edges.

Large Clear Object

Posted by Samuel Sirochman in Advanced Art - Hull on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 8:49 am

This is something similar to what we did in the first quarter, except on a much bigger scale. The paper is 24x36", the drawing itself is roughly 8x18. We were supposed to fill the paper, but after I had started I liked the direction I was heading too much and just kept going.

Q3 Benchmark - Deaf Evolution

Posted by Catherine Nardone in American History - Herman on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 8:32 am

FIRST COLLEGE OF THE DEAF

In the third year of the Civil War, there isn’t much to look forward to. In a time of distress, nothing seems possible, but yesterday was something different. April 8th, 1864 President Abraham Lincoln approved the Columbia Institution college status. This action, although unnecessary, made the Columbia Institution the first college for the deaf. Many people look down upon the deaf and think that they are dumb. However, many can not say this because of the fact that Edward M. Gallaudet is allowed to award degrees to his students. This shows that the deaf community is to be respected in a huge way, considering that Abraham Lincoln signed the bill.

Edward Miner Gallaudet didn’t always want to be the president of the Columbia University (later called Gallaudet University, in honor of E. M. Gallaudet’s father Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet). In fact, he wanted to be a banker. His father encouraged him to become a teacher of the deaf, but still lead Edward in the right direction. After his father died, a man named Amos Kendall told Edward about an opening as a superintendent of a school. He took it and became very successful. After that, Edward was looked at as having an altruistic soul; a colleague once said, “Several times when Dr. Gallaudet wanted appropriations, while I very much desired his success, I felt that he had undertaken more than could be accomplished; but somehow, under the influence of that earnest zeal, that even temperament, and the strong arguments which have always characterized his efforts, before the close of the session he would get practically what he desired.” Edward Gallaudet does everything in his power to make his college the best it can be to his staff and his students. He is a selfless person that wants to improve the community and the standards of the deaf.

Edward’s story goes back before he was born. His interest with the deaf started long ago as well. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet saw a little child standing in a playground. He wonderd why she wasn’t doing anything. He went over to her, and noticed that she couldn’t hear. He began to gesture to her. That little girl’s name was Alice Cogswell. Thomas helped her learn new things. He was later approached by a man named Laurent Clerc who was from France who taught Thomas a new form of Sign Language to teach. They established a new school and it attracted a lot of students of many different varieties and backgrounds. This was the beginning of a new era of Sign Language.

A “UNIVERSAL” LANGUAGE

Sign Language was not always here. Sign Language was not always popular. Sign Language was not always used. But, it’s different now. From France we have a whole different language. It’s helped so many people learn to communicate their ideas through so many different outlets such as schools, jobs, and other things.

    Laurent Clerc was the best student in the Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets, and he was taught by Abbe Sicard. With Thomas Hopkins Galluadet, he co-founded the first school for the deaf in North America. Since then, sign language has really taken off. In Martha’s Vineyard, which is an island off the coast of Massachusetts, has one of the most famous population of deaf people. Through inbreeding and a genetic mutation deafness became present and was around for over 250 years.
    Sign Language is continued to be thought of as a universal language, when its not. Though people all over the world sign, there is no one language for all the deaf. In Brittan, there is British Sign Language, in Australia, there is Australian Sign Language. Even though signing is worldwide, there are different variations of the language.
    Because of Laurent Clerc and the doings of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, there wouldn’t be a standing for the deaf in America. Right now Gallaudet is the only deaf college in the world, and it’s home to many of the deaf population who want to go out and make something of themselves. Gallaudet University would not be here if it wasn’t for the collaboration of Laurent Clerc and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, in addition to his son, Edward Miner Galludet.

CLOSED CAPTIONING

    It’s 1972, and accomplishments for the deaf are sort of unheard of. However, yesterday, a huge event happened for the deaf community and those who are hard of hearing. The first television show that now has closed captioning is The French Chef on PBS. This is a monumental achievement for the deaf community. Other shows that have these features Zoom, Once Upon a Classic, and ABC World News Tonight.
    Deaf are now flocking to the stores to buy their new decoders to transmit the closed captioning onto their televisions. Due to this surge in appliances, the companies who provided the decoders did not want to sell more, until more people bought them. But the people did not want to buy them until there were more closed captioned shows. It’s a chicken and the egg situation.
    Although the deaf liked the closed captioning, they wanted more programs to have this amenity for them. Later, though the companies who provided closed captioning gave more shows that had the captions on screen.
    The deaf were pleased about the fact that they could access more shows that had closed caption. There wasn’t anyone who was against this, since a lot of people can benefit from words being on screen. Not only did the deaf benefit but people who didn’t know English could learn how to speak it/read it. It’s an amazing accomplishment and it’s going to be around for a long time.

Donna Survillo CSPAN - 14th Amendment & Reflection (Q2 Benchmark)

Posted by Donna Survillo in American Government - Laufenberg on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 8:23 am

I chose to focus on the 14th amendment because it's something that I can relate to and it effects my life if it were to be changed. I specifically looked into this certain amendment because being Asian causes me to be a minority which the 14th amendment comments on. Section 1 of the amendment states, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." This matters to me because even though I'm considered a minority, according to the law, I cannot be discriminated against or held from any opportunities that may be offered.

I liked that we got to relate this project to ourselves and why these specific topics were important to us as a person. I really enjoyed the fact that we had a wide variety of topics to choose from and we were able to pick anything from the Constitution. I had a few challenges during the process of this project though. My partner and I split up because of personal reasons and she continued on with the original topic we were focusing on, so it caused me to choose another topic. Another challenge I had was that I'm not so good with video cameras and movie making so I had A LOT of trouble handling that. It was hard for me to get help because I knew I was falling behind and I didn't wanna cause anyone else to fall behind, knowing that it is benchmark season. So my project is late being turned in, but it still got done.

The most interesting fact that I learned was that a lot of times, people don't know that they all get the same rights; even if they are from a minority group. A lot of people believe that because they are a minority, they are not allowed to have the same rights as everyone else.

This project, specifically mine, could be improved by being turned in on time. I could have used my time more wisely and asked for more help when I needed it to be able to get it done on time. I could have also asked for an extension for a couple days and stayed in touch with my teacher who knew what was going on with my partner and I. I ran into trouble with my partner and when it came to technological things, but that was pretty much it.

Overall, a lot of things went well with this project. I learned a lot about the rights that I have as a minority. I also learned a lot more about not only my culture, but a lot of my classmates/friends cultures as well. But if I could do this project over, I would most definitely use my time more wisely.

Lola Akinsola C-Span Benchmark Amendment XVI

Posted by Omolola Akinsola in American Government - Laufenberg on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 8:20 am

Works Cited:

Honan, Mat. "The Government's Gadget Habit Has Cost You Hundreds of Millions." Gizmodo, the Gadget Guide. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://gizmodo.com/5812233/the-governments-gadget-habit-has-cost-you-hundreds-of-millions>.

Andrews, Edmund L. "Tax Cuts Offer Most for Very Rich, Study Says - New York Times." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 29 Jan. 2012. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/08/washington/08tax.html>.

"The First Income Tax." Civil War Trust: Saving America's Civil War Battlefields. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/warfare-and-logistics/logistics/tax.html>.

"Presidental Address." C-Span Video. C-Span. Web. <http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/165970-1>.

"Salmon P. Chase." NNDB. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.nndb.com/people/808/000031715/salmon-p-chase.jpg>.

"Lincoln." History Place. History Place. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <History Place>.

"Army Representatives." Ontario County Fair. Ontario County Fair. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.ontariocountyfair.org/pix/2004%20updates/Army%20Representatives.jpg>.

"IPad." Venture Beat. Venture Beat. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://venturebeat.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/ipad-3.jpg>.

I've always wanted to know what exactly it was that made the government take taxes out of people's incomes. At first I thought it was just a random way to get money because they had no other way of getting it. Money doesn't just come out of nowhere...unless you print it and somehow avoid inflation. Now that I've done this benchmark, I've learned what started taxes.
What I liked about this project was learning the history of how taxes started. I liked this because, like I said before, I've always wanted to know how taxes came to be. What I didn't like however, was how difficult it was putting the video together. I'm not good with iMovie (as long as I've had it) so I had to start my entire project over due to technical difficulties. What I also found challenging was not making myself sound sarcastic. I didn't want to seem mean while I was talking about the way the government spends our money. I do think I did an okay job at talking about them however. I still think I could've done better though.
The most interesting fact that I have investigated was the gadgets they bought with our money and compared that to the things that need to be done that haven't been done on roads and what not. I thought they just didn't have the money, not knowing that the money that was supposed to go to the road work was going to iPads and useless 30GB Zunes.
I just think I need to be more creative all together. I wanted to make it all pretty and stuff but I didn't know how to go about it without causing a distraction to the information being provided and the point I was trying to get across. Since this was so, I made the most boring video ever in my opinion.
I ran into trouble mostly with my vocal recordings. I was having trouble with the noise in the background, and it kept cutting off and ding other weird stuff so I had to start from scratch because it would've been too messy trying to fix all of that. However, what went well with this project, in my opinion, was finding information about the 16th amendment and information about the taxes that are being spent and the taxes that have been spent in the past few years during both Obama and Bush's administration. What also went well was the information I got from some oft he people I had interviewed. They said some things I didn't even know about.
If you had it to do over, what would you change about your decisions or your process?
Of course, if I had to do this whole project over I would make sure it's done on time! I would also take more time to make it interesting and not just a project. I would take the time out to make sure what I'm saying doesn't sound mean or anything because I don't want to sound mean talking about the government and submitting it to a competition (even though I really should).
Like I said earlier, I've learned how taxes came to be, when they came to be, how are taxes are being spent now, and what are taxes aren't being spent on. I've learned a little bit more than I had expected to. I've also learned how to work the new adjustments that have been made to Garageband. It took a while, but I got it now.

Student Cam Reflection - Amaris Romero

Posted by Amaris Romero on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 8:19 am

I decided to do this topic because I know I wanted to do something involving teens in high school I just didn't know what exactly it was that I wanted to do. I decided to work in a group of up to 3 students because we all wanted to do the same project involving privacy rights, the fourth amendment. I believe we are the only school in the district that does not have any metal detectors. It was interesting and we felt as a group to compare the different opinions o privacy from a school that has metal detectors and from a school that doesn't have metal detectors. It made sense for me because the fourth amendment speaks out on behalf of privacy rights and so do the students we interviewed from both schools. Overall I had a great interest in this topic because of the rights we have in our school and how independent we are.
My favorite part about this project was going to another school and interviewing the students. It was a good experience for me because I wanted to know how other students felt about their privacy rights overall. The most challenging about the interviews was the fact that a lot of the students were shy and didn't want to do the interview. We had a hard time trying to get the students to speak the first time we went out to interview. The second time we went to interview it became more interesting because many of the new students were volunteering to do the interview. It was also difficult because the principal wasn't there and we needed his opinions as well, so we just rescheduled and came back other day. The interviews I believe were the most challenging for me.
The most interesting thing I learned from this was the responses I got from the students. I learned so much on how they view privacy and how the process is for them. It takes the students about 15 minutes to get through the metal detectors, it's their process of getting into school where for us SLA students it takes about 2 seconds because we only sign in. It was interesting to see how their school life is and to see how affected the students were because of the process. The process also hasn't changed for them over the years.
I honestly don't think this project should be improved in any way except when it comes to the rubric. Maybe next time you should pass out on paper or online a rubric students can go off of during the process of the project. Other then that I don't believe anything else should be improved. I agree with the set-up and the overall process of the way the project is.
One big problem we ran into during the project was trying to interview the principal in SLA. It was difficult because at times because me and the rest of my group would get distracted and either forget to do the interview or would be to busy to do it. Also, when the time came down to us interviewing the principal we couldn't because he was busy. That was a major problem we had but we ended up interviewing another person.
The interviews with the students at both my school and at Benjamin Franklin High school went well. The process of going to the other school and being able to do the interviews with the students was great because we didn't come across any problems with the teachers or the students their. The project overall went along smoothly and well because we did have a few bumps along the process but we managed to get across and through our challenges.
If I were to do this project again I would manage my time better with the interviews from both schools. The decisions about the amendment I chose I would of possibly considered and brought up different high school privacy rights other then metal detectors and searches. I would have considered doing the topic about freedom of speech in high school and the overall views of how kids feel about it. Overall I believe we done well with the project and I would do everything else the same way I have done it now in the same process and the same decisions.
I learned a lot from this project about privacy rights and how other schools have to manage through it. How long it takes for them to go through metal detectors and how the process is. I learned that our school is the only school in the district that has no metal detectors. I also realized that our school is given a lot of freedom compared to other schools that have metal detectors and it's because our school can trust the students considering the fact that our school is an independent school.

Quarter 2 Benchmark

Posted by Elisa Hyder in American Government - Laufenberg on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 8:14 am

Link to Markia's post

Reflection:

I wanted to have a topic that not a whole lot of other people would choose, but will still be relevant to me on a personal level. I love to talk. I am incredibly opinionated and I love to articulate my thoughts, and the same can go for Markia. You suggested the topic to us, and we thought it would be interesting to explore our rights as students in school. The most interesting fact I learned from doing this project was how the most noticeable start for this fight of students rights was with the student protestors of the Vietnam War. Shows love to reference protestors from this time, but I didn't know it was a big deal in schools.

I liked the video format, and that it was a relatively longer video because it had to be 5-8 minutes. This left more room for different types of video tools and aspects. Of course, it then became a challenge to tie these different aspects together. When Markia and I showed our video to her older sister to proof read, she did express to us that it wasn't until the very end that everything was tied together and made things clear. The reason for this was mostly we had a lot of clips mixed around and a lot of b-role. To be honest, when we captured some of our video, we lost the audio. So, we had to work around this. We didn't want to have to much of a "pictures with our voice narration" situation because that is too typical, too boring. In order to avoid this, we had to get a little creative. I think that our end product though - especially will our little "reflection" at the end - came together to show the story we wanted to tell.

We actually got a lot of planning in early on and did our recording not at the last minute. But, when we started putting together the video we started have ideas like "Oh, it would be cool to have a picture of Lauf teaching here." These probably would have helped make our video more interesting. So, we probably could have had some sort storyboard going on from the beginning to lay out all our brainstorming ideas.

I didn't know the fine lines that come along with student free speech in school. According to some court decisions, we can say what we want as long as no disturbance is called. Then, in other decisions, the message can itself be a big enough disturbance or the risk of a disturbance is enough to silence the students.

Iraq Invasion of Kuwait

Posted by Tyler Morales in American History - Herman on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 9:40 pm

Here is my benchmark